I decided to become an Illustrator: Comic Artist because I tried abstract art early in my career and discovered that stories must be foundational to everything I paint, design, and create. Thus, stories are now where I live.
My latest Comic, Teutonic Monsters, is a historical Roman military legend as a fantasy and comic, primarily caught my eye due to the theme of never discounting the impossible. Comics are special to me in that the reader fills in the blanks between the panels of art and becomes a part of the creation process.
For the medium, I chose ink washes and a digital process that starts with pencil sketches, then moves to inking by hand, then scanning, then completing the color via PhotoShop. This process combination gives me the freedom to explore each page up to the final stages, considering the range of possibilities to showcase the story while balancing the need for efficiency. The critical element of my sequential artwork is the story itself. The next key elements visually create drama and energy through the digital and inking steps. As I work through the entire storyboarding process, the sequential art presents many challenges when sharing this anti-hero’s journey. I also work through each stage of comic production, from story writing to character research to layout, etc., which is very similar to directing a film.
Finding my voice as an artist has been a journey of twists and turns, and one could say it has been a parallel journey to something like these ancient stories. There are giants exemplifying the mythos of the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses and how our lives are shaped, like how people today say, ‘Face your giants.’ Setting up the juxtaposition of civilized versus uncivilized provides the battleground between cultures and showcases the struggle of which one is superior: The local’s ‘wild, disorderly chaos’ or ‘Roman order’?
